From the principle of least action to the

conservation of quantum information

in chemistry

Can one generalize

the periodic table?
 The 23rd annual conference of the
International Society for the
Philosophy of Chemistry (ISPC)

15-17 July 2019 Turin

 Vasil Penchev

Dept of Logical Systems and Models, Institute for

the Study of Societies and knowledge, Bulgarian
Academy of Sciences
vasildinev@gmail.com
 Project:
ДН 15/14 - 18.12.2017 to the "Scientific
Research" Fund, Bulgaria: "Non-Classical
Science and Non-Classical Logics.
Philosophical and Methodological
Analyses and Assessments"
 Mass conservation

In fact, the first law of conservation (that of

mass) was found in chemistry
It was generalized to the conservation of energy
in physics by means of Einstein’s famous
“E=mc2”
One can continue: Information = I(E) ?
 Emmy Noether’s theorems (1918)

Energy conservation is implied by the principle

of least action from a variational viewpoint as in
Emmy Noether’s theorems (1918), especially the
first one:
Then, infomation conservation can be implied
by the generalization in the second theorem?
 Energy conservation in chemistry

Any chemical change in a conservative (i.e.

“closed”) system can be accomplished only in
the way conserving its total energy
Only one pathway for any reaction is followed,
but only in classical chemistry rather than in
quantum one
 Bohr’s foundation of the periodic table

Bohr grounded Mendeleev’s periodic table by

quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics implies a certain
generalization:
All quantum leaps are as if accomplished in all
possible trajectories (e.g. according to Feynman’s
viewpoint)
 Generalizing energy conservation
Therefore, the principle of least action is
generalized:
This needs a certain generalization of energy
conservation as to any quantum change
Thus, any reaction in quantum chemistry has to be
accomplished in all pathways simultaneously
 From the first to the second theorem
The transition means chemically for the
generalization of any reaction to be accomplished
as if any possible “course of time”
All of them are counterfactual as to each other as
to the (f)actual one, in classical chemistry
The second theorem implies immediately: as many
“times” as many “trajectories” of the reaction
 A comparison with the standard energy conservation

The standard evenly running time is that of

“least action”:
Thus, it is equivalent to energy conservation
according to the first theorem
Time is arbitrarily “accelerated” in all other,
“counterfactual” pathways
 The problem:

If any quantum change is accomplished in all

possible “variations (i.e. “violations”) of energy
conservation” (by different probabilities), what (if
any) is conserved?
What is conserved is impossible to be energy
(valid only for the “trajectory of least action”)
 An answer:

Quantum information is what is conserved

Indeed, it can be particularly defined as the
counterpart to the physical quantity of action
Emmy Noether’s theorems imply counterparts of all
mechanical quantities complementing them to that
of action (e.g. as energy is the counterpart of time in
them)
 To counterfactuality

The conservation of quantum information is valid

in any course of time rather than in the evenly
running one
All those pathways of a chemical reaction can be
considered as “counterfactual” to the single one
of energy conservation in classical chemistry
 An illustration

Observers in arbitrarily accelerated reference

frames exchange light signals about the course
of a single chemical reaction observed by all of
them,
Then, the universal viewpoint shareаble by all
is that of quantum information
 The universal viewpoint of quantum information

The separable complex Hilbert space utilized by

quantum mechanics can be equivalently
represented as vectors of qubits
Those vectors are infinitely dimensional in general
Any qubit in turn is a generalization of “bit” as to
infinite sets
 A “Gedankenexperiment” in Einstein’s manner

Let us imagine an observer of a certain chemical

reaction occuring in an arbitrary reference frame:
For example, an astrochemist observes from the
earth a chemical reaction in a very remote celestial
body in the universe by means of the spectral lines
The observed spectral lines would be quite
different from those of the same substances on the
earth
 In terms of wave functions
A wave function of initial chemical substances would
transform to that of another
Energy conservation would imply for the
operator transforming the initial wave function
into the final one to be Hermitian (self-adjoint)
operator
However, the earthly astrochemist would observe a
quite different operator for the same transformation
 The earthly astrochemist’s obserbations
The operator according to the earthly astrochemist
would not be Hermitian in general
Thus, it would suggest a certain violation of
energy conservation in the course of chemical
reaction
The observed difference is due to the deviation of
the real geodetic line, in which the spectral lines
reach the earth, according to general relativity
The equivalence of a geodetic line to a change of spectral lines
The equivalence between 1 and 2:
1: All arbitrary geodetic lines in the
pseudo-Riemannian space of the universe
2: All possible deviations of the chemical reaction
operators observed anywhere in the universe by
the earthly astrochemist, to the Hermitian operator
of the same reaction observed on the earth
 The same chemical reaction at entanglement

The astrochemist accomplishes another set of

experiments about the course (i.e. the operator)
of the reaction:
1. Rigorously restricted to be on the earth
2. At all possible entanglements of the initial
chemical substances
 Two classes of experiments:

The latter: a certain chemical reaction at all

possible entanglements of the initial chemical
substances
The former: the same chemical reaction
observed in each point of the universe by an
earthly astrochemist
 What the conservation of quantum information implies

Both classes are identical to each other for any

certain chemical reaction
Each geodetic line from any point in the
universe to the earth is equivalent to a certain
state of entanglement of the initial chemical
substances for any certain chemical reaction
 The “alchemical” periodic table
Thr conservation of quantum information implies a
generalization of the periodic table:
It includes any continuous and smooth
transformation between two chemical elements
Thus it can be called the “alchemical” periodic table
It conserves quantum information, not energy
 Conclusions

1. The second of Emmy Noether’s theorems

(1918) implies the conservation of quantum
information
2. The conservation of quantum information in
chemistry means a new domain: quantum
chemistry of entanglement and its
generalized periodic table
The full article (20 pages): at researchgate.net

Thank you for your kind

attention!
Please, any questions?
 The article at ResearchGate

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/33205
8314_From_the_principle_of_least_action_to_t
he_conservation_of_quantum_information_in_
chemistry_Can_one_generalize_the_periodic_t
able